New York Jets: Could Maurice Jones-Drew and Darrelle Revis Co-Exist Fiscally?

Besides the fact that they are both Pro-Bowlers who are each one of the best at their respective trade, Darrelle Revis and Maurice Jones-Drew have one common complaint: They want more money, and they want it now.

In my last article, I talked about the possibility of the Jets acquiring Maurice Jones-Drew and what it would cost them. This forced me to look into the Jets’ salary cap situation. It turns out that the Jets are low in cap space, very low. They currently only have a measly $6 million to spend on the trade-and-sign of Maurice Jones Drew and the front-loaded contract for Darrelle Revis.

With only six million dollars to spend, there’s no way they could coexist. Well, there actually is a quite simple way. I was looking into the future (thanks to the nice people at NYJetsCap.com) and learned that one player is making over $11 million when he doesn’t even deserve $3 million.

His name is Calvin Pace.

So what does that mean? If the Jets trade him, they could unload that entire $11 million. The problem with that is no team wants a washed up player like Pace who also carries such a large cap hit. Rather, they should try to sign him for a light $3.5 million for two years. Trading seems to be out of the question.

Let’s look into the option of cutting him. In cutting Pace, $8 million will have been saved, but $3 million would have been dead money (because they cut him), meaning that the Jets would still save $5 million.

Assuming that the Jets stay in the base 4-3 defense next season, they’d have DeMario Davis, Bart Scott, David Harris and Josh Mauga all able to play the three linebacker positions. Calvin Pace does not even fit into the 4-3 as it stands, so why try to make him fit *and* feed him $11 million?

Rob Carr/Getty Images

No, I don't hate him. He just simply isn't an NFL starter in a 4-3 defense.

That leaves the Jets with over $11 million to work with. The first thing they should do right before the season is trade for Maurice Jones-Drew and give him a new contract. Said contract would hopefully be in the ballpark of five years, $35 million (or $7 million per year). That leaves only $4 million left in cap (not including all of the other players who will be getting a new contract). The Jets would feed every cent of this $4 million into Revis’ 2013 salary, meaning his pay would jump from $9 million to $13 million. Then give him an average of $16 million for the next three seasons, and then two seasons at $11 million. Such deal would turn into a six-year deal worth $83 million.

Assuming that the Jets can re-sign most of their players next offseason, they could be entering the 2013-2014 season with one of the toughest teams in the AFC and with most of their players happy.

What do you think about giving so much money to these two guys? Share your thoughts in the comments section. I’d like to see what you have to say. Thanks for reading.